ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses stirrings on the Continent that go by the shorthand of "Europe 1992" and that may generate significant new pressures for change in New York. As European markets become more integrated, one might expect banking and securities business to further gravitate toward a single location, such as London, as it has done in the past. It might seem that "1992"—whose impact will be the greatest on Europe's retail markets—will have little impact on New York. But as Europe's retail markets become more competitive, America's retail markets are likely to look more and more attractive because they are comparatively less competitive. Most European countries allow their financial firms to engage in a wider range of securities, insurance, and investment activities than the United States or Japan do for either foreign or domestic banks. European governments annoyed by this unequal state of affairs might well shut US and Japanese financial firms out of their domestic markets.
